Archive for the ‘Weblogs’ Category
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Many people complain that they don’t get any juice from their blogging activity.
The problem is usually related to one of two issues.
1) Not enough people are seeing the blog.
2) The blog topic isn’t interesting enough.
By “interesting,” I mean relevant and by “relevant,” I mean something that is in the news. Extra points, if the blog topic is related to what you’re marketing.
Never forget that the Internet works on keywords, so your blog has a better chance of being read if it contains the most popular keywords of that particular day. A good place to get your daily keywords is from news sites, such as www.CNN.com.
Here’s how this formula worked to a tee for me this week.
Peter Falk, TV’s Lt. Columbo, died late last week. I posted a blog about how Columbo’s famous “just one more thing” line became an effective selling tactic and pushed it out to my social media platforms.
Radio show morning host, Michael Patrick Shiels, a connection in my vast social media network, read the blog and had his producer contact me for an interview.
(By the way, another author/speaker in my city also had the idea to post about Columbo, but he incorrectly spelled the name “Colombo,” which no doubt reduced his number of original views. Spelling counts, people.)
You can hear the interview tomorrow morning, Tuesday, June 28 at 6:45 AM ET at MichiganTalkNetwork.com.
Of course, once the interview was booked, I reposted the same topic along with the new development to squeeze extra juice out of the topic. I might even create an “epilogue post” after the interview is completed.
Good luck with blogging and all your marketing efforts!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyone can blog. Listen to Michael Angelo Caruso interview with Paula Parisot, a soccer mom and paid blogger. The 60-minute audio CD is titled, Blogging for Profit.
Tags: blog, blogging, blogging for profit, columbo, michael Angelo Caruso, michael patrick shiels, michigan talk network, paula parisot, peter falk, Social Media
Posted in Blogging, Career development, Communication, Creativity, Entertainment, Entreprenuers, Growing Your Business, Internet marketing, Marketing, Personal Development, Problem Solving, Selling, Social Media, Success, Weblogs, Writing and Publishing | No Comments »
Friday, May 6th, 2011
Like most rewarding activities, blogging requires discipline and focus.
You’re going to need both in order to post frequently.
It also helps to have a bunch of handy-dandy tricks. Below, I share some of my blogging secrets. You’re going to need the proper mindset, tools, time, and the need to succeed.
Mindset
In order to blog every day, you must have a free flow of ideas from mind to keyboard. If a person only has so many “attention units” in a day, it’s important that units aren’t squandered on disorganization, drama, and trivial pursuits.
In other words, clean your desk, free your mind of clutter, and stop running late all the time.
Strong blog posts require clear thinking. Daily blogging requires expediency a creative verve.
This means always being on the lookout for blog topics and having the ability to capture the idea in written format.
Tools
I always carry a pen and paper. Sometimes it’s a small notebook. Sometimes it’s an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper that’s gate-folded and slipped into the breast pocket of my sport coat.
I also keep notes in my iPhone. If my computer is available, I may decide to keystroke the blog topic directly into my WordPress site where it can be published immediately or saved as a draft.
I’ve even been known to take a photo of a blog idea or leave myself a voice mail message.
Time
Blogging more frequently doesn’t require more time. You’ll have plenty of time to write, if you just stop doing other things.
Here are five reasons why I always have plenty of time to blog:
- I write far more blog posts than I read. (If you’re reading, you can’t be writing.)
- I can’t remember the last time I watched a complete ball game on TV.
- I never stand in line.
- I never take a meeting, especially for “networking” purposes, without at least one expected deliverable for both parties. This saves TONS of time.
- I have a fantastic vocabulary (thanks, Wordsmith.org!) and write very fast. Can rewrite even faster.
The need to succeed
Finally, successful bloggers have an almost compulsive need to enlighten and entertain others. I’m quite dedicated to this goal, which is why I posted an article on how you can blog every day.
For more tips on blogging, check out my fun interview with Michigan soccer mom, Paula Parisot, who gets paid for blogging.
How often do you blog now? Do you think the above tricks can be helpful for you? Do you have others?
Tags: blog, michael Angelo Caruso, vocabulary, Wordpress, wordsmith.org
Posted in Career development, Communication, Creativity, Entertainment, Growing Your Business, Internet marketing, Personal Development, Problem Solving, Sales and Marketing, Self improvement, Social Media, Weblogs, Writing and Publishing | No Comments »
Sunday, April 10th, 2011
I generate a ton of content!
You may know that I produce a bi-monthly newsletter, post three blogs a week, and maintain multiple accounts on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
I also conduct monthly teleseminars, post tons of video on my YouTube and Vimeo channels and have created over 75 information products.
People often ask me how I get it all done. Sometimes I wonder, too!
My favorite magic trick
One of my “tricks” involves repurposing content. It’s a useful technique for anyone who works as a leader or supervisor, salesperson, customer service rep or whatever.
When you repurpose your great content, your information becomes accessible to more people in more convenient ways. When your relevant content shows up in multiple places, YOU become more familiar, and people start thinking of you as an industry expert. Pretty cool!
Do you ever give presentations? Here are three easy ways to make your talk available in different modalities:
1) Record your live presentation with a digital recorder like those sold at Radio Shack. Then, import the sound file to a free audio editing program such as “Audacity” and burn audio CDs to giveaway or sell.
2) Record a three-minute highlight of your speech with a Flip video camera and post the clip on YouTube. Be sure to display your Web site on the “bottom third” of the screen to drive traffic to your Web site.
3) Publish an e-book version of your speech. Use voice recognition software to create a transcript or keystroke the speech into a Word doc (if you use a PC) and convert the document into a .pdf.
Oh, and congratulations! When you do #3, you’ll officially be a published author!
Churn out your own info products
For dozens of more tips on this subject and to generate a passive revenue stream for yourself, listen to my 60-minute audio CD, How to Create Info Products. It comes with a 30-page e-book, too!
Thanks for your interest in self-improvement. Now go repurpose some of your great content!
-Michael Angelo Caruso, Royal Oak, Michigan
Tags: facebook, flip video, info products, Information products, Internet marketing, michael Angelo Caruso, michigan, radio shack, repurpose content, royal oak, twitter, vimeo, youtube
Posted in Blogging, Career development, Communication, Creativity, Entreprenuers, Growing Your Business, Information products, Internet marketing, Keynote, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Development, Problem Solving, Sales and Marketing, Self improvement, Selling, Seminar, Social Media, Speaking, Success, Training, Weblogs | No Comments »
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Most people haven’t figured out blogging, yet. That’s because blogging, that is writing, is a discipline like playing the trumpet or flying an airplane. Or juggling. It takes time and effort to make it worthwhile. It also helps to be motivated, which usually happens when one is a little knowledgeable about the discipline.
Here are 5 reasons to blog, even if nobody reads it, followed by a chance for you to learn more from a soccer mom I interviewed who now gets paid to blog for other people.
1. Search perks. Internet search engines love fresh content. Since blogs, especially WordPress blogs, are easily updated your company is more likely to be found even if you create a blog post once per week. Blogs are the new Web sites.
2. Perpetual value. Time and again, I am contacted by people who tell me they read an old blog post and liked what I had to say. Some of these folks turn into customers. Your blog content keeps working for you year after year!
3. Drip marketing. Periodic blog posts are a great way to keep in touch. People will never forget about you because they are always being reminded. Rig your social media sites to automatically post blog articles.
4. Virtual salesperson. SAP advertises training services in a sidebar on its blog. Wegmans grocery store blogs about recipes that use their food products.
5. Massive public relations reach. If your blog is consistently good, you may get picked up by an aggregation service. When this happens, your lil’ ol’ blog could be read by hundreds of thousands of people!
________
Soccer mom and paid blogger, Paula Parisot
A while back, I interviewed Paula Parisot, a soccer mom who now gets paid for blogging. A non-techie by her own admission, Paula talks about how she does it and shares valuable tips on how you can get started doing the same. That is, unless you can’t use the money. Learn more Blogging for Profit by listening to this fun CD.
It was fun interviewing Paula. She takes a “real-world” approach to things and I think you’ll like her!
-Michael Angelo Caruso
Royal Oak, Michigan
Tags: aggregation service, blog, blogging, drip marketing, flying an airplane, Internet, Internet marketing, juggling, michael Angelo Caruso, michigan, paula parisot, royal oak, sap, Social Media, speaker, trumpet, wegmans, Wordpress
Posted in Blogging, Career development, Communication, Creativity, Customer Service, Entertainment, Growing Your Business, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Development, Problem Solving, Sales and Marketing, Self improvement, Weblogs | No Comments »
Sunday, January 30th, 2011
When posting an article to your blog or creating other content for your company’s Internet presence, it’s best to do your own writing.
But, if your writing skills aren’t the best, you can also rework articles that have already been published. When doing so, make every effort to avoid two things:
1) Plagiarism, which is unethical. It’s just plain wrong to use claim credit for someone else’s work. This includes the despicable act of anonymously posting articles–as if the pieces wrote themselves!
2) Duplicate content. Google and other search engines notice when you post duplicate content and will penalize you with lower search rankings.
Here are some guidelines for reworking articles written by others.
Be sure to change the other writer’s article at least 70%. You can do this by rearranging the paragraphs and sentences and changing the order of the bullet points. Delete some of the material and maybe add a bit of your own. You can also incorporate content from two or three sources.
Perhaps the best way to go about reworking an article is to put the words in your own voice. For example, don’t keep words you would never use in conversation.
A second way to rewrite is to simply delete awkward phrasing, sentence fragments, convoluted sentences, and other nonsense. Most people tend to overwrite, so it will be easier to make your revised article shorter, just by
taking out the weakest parts.
Speaking of length, you only need about 500 words for a substantial blog post. I recently rewrote a cool article I found online, by using all the above techniques and busting the article into four blog posts.
When finished, include your favorite keywords in three places: the title, first paragraph and last paragraph before posting.
Be sure to add your contact information and attribution for the writer–you, if you followed these directions and when rewriting content.
-Michael Angelo Caruso
P.S. Learn how a soccer Mom named, Paula Parisot, now gets paid for blogging. Michael interviews her on the CD, Blogging for Profit.
More great Internet marketing info (mostly original articles!) at http://www.michaelangelocaruso.com/michael-angelo-caruso-blog/
Tags: blog, blogging, duplicate content, google, Internet, Internet marketing, michael Angelo Caruso, plaigarism, rewrite articles, rewriting articles
Posted in Blogging, Communication, Creativity, Entreprenuers, Growing Your Business, Internet marketing, Marketing, Success, Weblogs, Writing and Publishing | No Comments »
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Congratulations! You’ve found my new blog site!
All archived posts and future posts can be found on my blog site at www.MichaelAngelCaruso.com.
This new Web site is exciting. The concept is an ongoing collaborative effort between my office and the great folks at Trademark Productions in Royal Oak.
Dwight Zahringer and company rock when it comes to making the Internet work for clients and it’s always a pleasure working with them.
As you can see, the new site features the (new) old blog, online registration for live events and over 50 of my info products, including books, e-books, audio programs and videos for leaders, salespeople and entrepreneurs.
Think of www.MichaelAngeloCaruso.com as me 2.0!
Tags: Edison House, Internet marketing, michael Angelo Caruso, Selling, Success
Posted in Communication, Entreprenuers, Growing Your Business, Information products, Sales and Marketing, Self improvement, Selling, Success, Weblogs | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Most likely, there are tons of blogs receiving more traffic than your primary Web site. You can siphon some traffic from these sites with some etiquette and a simple technique.
Most bloggers don't mind you promoting yourself a bit, as long as you provide value to his or her readership. I certainly don't mind when readers leave this type of post on my blog.
Use a 95/5 rule of providing only 5% self-promotion and the rest some comination of value-added content and compliments. Here are the five steps to using other blog sites to drive traffic to yours.
1. Read a recent blog post on a popular site.
2. Compliment the blog host on his site and message.
3. Use an incidental credential to introduce your comment, such as "in my experience as a speaker" or "when I published my book on the subject" or "in my 15 years of experience."
4) Offer a value-added comment that will help readers.
5) Finally, give your contact information. Note: Some blogs automatically reject comments that contain full URLs.
If you are too blatant about promoting yourself, it won't matter how valuble your comment is. The comment will be disallowed.
Play by the rules, be nice and you can use other peoples' blogs to drive traffic to your site.
Tags: blog, comment on blogs, get blog traffic, increase Web site traffic, michael Angelo Caruso, more Web site traffic
Posted in Marketing, Weblogs, Writing and Publishing | No Comments »
Use popular blogs to drive traffic to your site
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Most likely, there are tons of blogs receiving more traffic than your primary Web site. You can siphon some traffic from these sites with some etiquette and a simple technique.
Most bloggers don't mind you promoting yourself a bit, as long as you provide value to his or her readership. I certainly don't mind when readers leave this type of post on my blog.
Use a 95/5 rule of providing only 5% self-promotion and the rest some comination of value-added content and compliments. Here are the five steps to using other blog sites to drive traffic to yours.
1. Read a recent blog post on a popular site.
2. Compliment the blog host on his site and message.
3. Use an incidental credential to introduce your comment, such as "in my experience as a speaker" or "when I published my book on the subject" or "in my 15 years of experience."
4) Offer a value-added comment that will help readers.
5) Finally, give your contact information. Note: Some blogs automatically reject comments that contain full URLs.
If you are too blatant about promoting yourself, it won't matter how valuble your comment is. The comment will be disallowed.
Play by the rules, be nice and you can use other peoples' blogs to drive traffic to your site.
Tags: blog, comment on blogs, get blog traffic, increase Web site traffic, michael Angelo Caruso, more Web site traffic
Posted in Marketing, Weblogs, Writing and Publishing | No Comments »